Re: essentialism

[John Young]

Has Diane Fuss's "Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and 
Difference," been discussed here?


She writes (of texts), "in and of itself, essentialism is 
neither good nor bad, progressive nor reactionary, beneficial 
nor dangerous. The question we should be asking is ... 'if this 
text is essentialist, what motivates its deployment?' "


Following her lead, since the essentialist argument keeps 
recurring -- for gender, for nature, for other ecological 
disputes -- how may it be critiqued?